(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety apparatus of a fuel cell vehicle and a method for controlling the safety apparatus.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A fuel cell refers to a power generation device which directly converts chemical energy generated by oxidizing a fuel into electrical energy. The fuel cell may be similar to a chemical battery since both basically use an oxidation and reduction reaction, but the fuel cell may be different from the chemical battery because in the fuel cell, reactants are continuously supplied from the exterior and reaction products are removed to the exterior of a system. However, in the chemical battery, battery reaction is performed in a closed system. Since the fuel cell generates the reaction products such as water, research into a fuel cell vehicle as an environmentally-friendly vehicle has been actively pursued.
A plurality of collision sensors may be provided to sense a collision of a fuel cell vehicle. For example, an air bag control unit (ACU) determines whether or not to expand an air bag based on signals input from the plurality of collision sensors.
When the collision of the fuel cell vehicle is determined only based on the signals input from the plurality of collision sensors, however, it is difficult or impossible to determine if an actual collision has occurred. For example, in the event of a failure of the collision sensor itself, disconnection or short-circuit of a wire connected to the collision sensor, a failure of an output signal of the collision sensor, or the like, occurrence of an actual collision may not be determined. Some high voltage systems of the fuel cell vehicle may be damaged due to flooding, a low speed collision that is not sufficient to expand the air bag, or a specific collision (e.g., a curb strike) that occurs out of a sensing range of the collision sensor, and consequently, a secondary accident such as an electric shock accident or an electrical fire may occur.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.